Hey! I'm Emily... homebody, amateur philosopher, professional photographer, mama and wife. This is my little world-- a place for me to preserve the little snippets of my life that bring me joy, make me think, or show my creative leanings. I'm so happy you're here. If you get a minute, please introduce yourself in the comments. If you like what you see, you are invited to follow my blog through your RSS Reader. Just click the link at the bottom of the page to add me.Thank you for being part of my little world... :)

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Thursday, February 10

For my birthday two summers ago, I got a lovely little gift card to Anthropologie, and treated myself to two hair clips that looked like these:

They were a bit pricey, as Anthro stuff tends to be-- $15 apiece, and after months of wearing them and pondering them and KNOWING I could make them myself somehow, I finally took some time to actually dissect the flower (not LITERALLY, but close! I poked and prodded that thing until I was SURE it'd fall apart!), and I came up with a reasonably similar version.

This tutorial is going to share that process with you, so you can make a flower that looks like THIS:

Pretty close, right? Cute!

T-Shirt Fabric Flower Supply List

1/4 + yard of t-shirt fabric, also called cotton knit interlocking
paper to make a template
scissors
straight pins
felt in a matching or complimentary color
glue (I use either Tacky Glue or hot glue)
hair accessory to complete the flower (headband, clip, pin)

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So to begin, you will need a little bit of t-shirt fabric. You can use an old t-shirt you actually have, or you can go to the fabric store and get some cotton knit interlocking (the official name of this fabric). Ask your friendly fabric store employee for help if you're a fabric store rookie. You can get by with 1/4 yard if you only want to try this out with one or two flowers. Or you can get more if you are feeling ambitious and want to make several.

You'll also need some felt and some kind of hair clip, pin, headband, etc.

Step One:

Make a flower template. This doesn't have to be super precise, but is should have 5-6 petals. You can see I just used scrap paper. My flower is approx. 3"-3.5" across.

(P.S. Ew, gross-- forgive my dingy college-era mini-ironing board that is the backdrop for these photos. It is old and not-so-pretty. I apologize!)

Step Two:

Cut a stack of these flowers. Some of you might want to trace the template... But I am lazy and HATE pen lines, so I just stacked my fabric two layers deep and cut around the template while it was pinned. You need nine total flowers, though this stack shows 11 (can't have too many extras, right??).

Step Three:

Cut a felt circle in a coordinating or complimentary color, about 2.5" or 3" across.

Take your first flower and fold it in half.

And then in half again.

Do this with your first four petals, and arrange them so their corners all meet in the center of the felt circle.

Step Four:

You can do the assembling in one of three ways. I've done all three, and truly have no preference. You can use:
1. Tacky Glue
2. Hot glue gun
3. Thread

Now fold four more petals the same way, and glue them in a second layer, but semi-perpendicular to the first layer. Okay, too hard to explain, let me show you. (This pic shows glue gun glue). Add all four petals onto the layer this way, and once again glue the top flap of the folded petal to itself.

Step Six:

Fluff up your two-layered flower to begin seeing what the final product will look like.

See the sides? Lots of fun texture from the multiple folds and layers!

Step Seven:

Now for the center. Take a petal and fold it in half. This time, instead of folding it again, you are going to roll it into a sort of cone, with the fold being the narrow part of the cone and the petals being the wide part:

You're making a rosebud type of effect, shown here:

Step Eight:

I actually trimmed about 1/2" off of the bottom of this rosebud cone, but you don't have to. You then GOB it with glue (perhaps hot glue is best here, or thread. Tacky Glue might not hold this last petal well enough for you to wait for it to dry)... And place the rosebud, bottom tip down, into the center of your flower.
(I'm mushing it down in there pretty hard, if you can't tell.)

Step Nine:

We need to fluff up this flower in a more permanent way now, otherwise you'll have two flat layers and a sticking-up rosebud. So we are going to attach parts of the top layer of petals to the rosebud, to bring up the petals to the same level as the rosebud. Like this:

Glue dots in place:

Petals now attached to rosebud:

Step Ten:

If you want, you can do this gluing petals to each other thing in other places to bring more body to the flower, or you can call it good just the way it is.

If you are ready to finish, you just need to attach your preferred hair accessory to the felt circle on the back.

Headband: If you want this to go on a headband, cut another felt circle and use a glue gun to glue the flower on top of the headband. Ring the second felt circle with glue and attach it to the first felt circle, with the headband sandwiched between. Don't be skimpy with the glue!

And VOILA! You have your own Anthropologie-style T-Shirt Fabric Flower! The fabric won't fray, and the color will stay fresh, and you'll be hip and ready to go!

Ta da!

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To enjoy my other flower tutorial, the handmade singed fabric flowers, click HERE. Remember, if you get crafty and make some of these, blog it and let me know via comment or email. Also, you can email me a photo of your flowers and I'll blog about you in a future post and link to your blog if you like! Fun, right?

Oh you are a SMART cookie!!! We made these the other day at a baby shower, but they only had us do the first two layers and put a jewel in the middle. I thought it was a cute idea, but did not love it. I kept trying to fluff it up and it just wouldn't stay. I wasn't happy with the look of the jewel in the middle. I just ran accross this tutorial and it's perfect!!!! It's exactly what I would have wanted it to look like. I just made some adorable skirts for my little girl and am going to make matching hair flowers with the left over fabric with your instructions. THANKS for the inspiration!!!!!

I used two different fabrics, one was printed and one was solid and I alternated the colors. I used 100% cotton fabric (instead of tshirt fabric) and they still turned out great. Thanks so much for the detailed tutorial- it was super easy to follow!

Fantastic tutorial. I have made these before but starting and ending in a different way and your flower look better and fuller then mine. I am excited to make more! Have you tried making them with other material? Thanks!

I made one of these last night and it turned out SO cute! I also did one of the others. Friends were asking how I did it, and I thought about just letting them think I'm a genius and not telling, but then I thought better of it and posted in my blog how to get to your blog. I posted a couple of pictures of my first attempts. Thanks for the help!

found you through pinterest, and so glad I did. I bought some mustard tshirt fabric and it's gorgeous for these little flowers! I hot-glued each flower on a pin & added them as a gift wrapping embellisment that can double as a pin for my girl friends winter coats once their presents are opened! :) Thanks for the great tutorial.

I had to comment again because these have been my little Christmas miracle. I just whipped up 5 of these in bright fun colors for my daughter to give to her besties as presents.Also, I wanted to share that I made one tonight using tulle and it turned out FABULOUS! The trick is that you have to use hot glue, be ready to burn your fingers, and do 4 layers instead of 2. The middle piece doesn't really look right so I used a round rhinestone. Because of the 4 layers it fluffs itself beautifully. My daughter flipped out.

Hey, just wanted to thank you SO SO much! I pinned this on Piterest some time ago and just got around to making it tonight (It's actually the first thing I've re-purposed out of something I had been meaning to get rid of, so for that an even bigger thanks for making my first exploration into the crafty world a good one!) but I made it, even made it a little bigger, and I love it!! I've always loved having flowers in my hair, but recently it has seemed to become a trend, therefore very expensive, even at less expensive stores than Anthropologie! So thank you for your exploration into the flowers you bought, for the bettering of all the rest of us!

Your Tut was very well written and SUPER easy to follow. I discovered you through pinterest. I am going to expereiment with this and singed or glitter edgges for an accessory for a formal event. LOVE it, thanks for sharing!!

Just saw this today and made it tonight. I attached it to a headband. My daughter wanted to sleep in it, she just loves it. Wait....wasn't this supposed to be for ME? Hmm...may have to steal it from her.

I'm so happy to have found you on Pinterest! I'm not fond of hair bows and have been looking for different ways to make fabric flowers... this I will be trying tomorrow! And thank you for taking the time to share with us!

I found you on Pinterest & am spreading word of you there. Thank you so much for this clear tutorial made delightful through your wonderful photography! You are so good to share your great idea with others.Now as soon as I can pause from making aprons, I want to play with making your flowers.

Thank you!! I'm so excited to try this. I have girls (and a boy) and can envision matching hair!

Can you add a "follow by email" to your blog? I'm such a loser with RSS feeds/reader. (or maybe you do have that? I'm on my iPad...). I'll have to check back when I get to the computer & beg you if you don't have it;-) It's a little gadget you can add from bloggers included gadget options.

HI!!! Thank you so much for this tutorial. I have tried it and made some wonderful little flowers. I posted it on my blog and send a link back here!! Please Follow our blog as we document our journey as a young couple On Our Way to Hollywood! http://the-bodkins.blogspot.com/

Great tutorial! I made a handful of these for Mother's Day out of my daughter's outgrown clothes. For thinner fabrics, I added another layer of "petals" for a nice, full flower. I think I'll make some for her teachers as well. Thank you!

I am making these to embellish my daughter's dollar store flip flops. So cute! I just glue them on and then glue another piece of felt under and around the toe piece of the flip flop. Great tutorial! Thanks!

Omg Emily! I am getting married in three months and I am trying to be as sustainable as possible in the planning - so I didn't want real flowers at the event! This is a GORGEOUS and incredibly simple alternative! I literally threw one of these together out of an old t-shirt in less than 45 minutes to see how I liked it, and they are happening! I also enlisted the help of my crafty bridesmaid ;) Thanks so much for posting these and the other fabric flowers! Beautiful!

Thank you for the tutorial.. it's lovely..after i looked at the pictures and scanned the article i noticed an apology for the ironing board..honestly i never noticed it until u mentioned it after i carefully read your post...your ironing board is just fine and you should never have to apologize for an apparatus that is a workhorse in your household..that while not "trendy," works for your purposes. I never understood the zebra print ironing board covers anyways. Mine is a dingy plaid.

I am putting together a list of great ways to make items out of old t-shirts, and I'd love to include your cute tutorial. I can include a link without a photo, but I think more people would check out your tutorial if they saw a picture. Would you mind if I used a photo?

I just wanted you to know I featured your t-shirt to flower tutorial on my recent post about 10 ten ways to re-purpose t-shirts: http://thedomesticatedprincess.blogspot.com/2012/10/from-t-shirt-to-treasure-part-1.html.

Hi there, I love your blog and ideas! I've been making baby headbands lately and your flower tutorials are beautiful.

I wonder if you could change the settings so when I click on a link, it will open in a new window instead of taking me away from your blog page? Since right-clicking is not allowed here I cannot right click the link and tell it to open in a new window. It would be very helpful!

WOW... Amazing T-Shirt here....!!! I am so much confused when I see those picture....!!!Here I find stylist t-shirt shop. So, Dear, Please come to this shop, and Buy your best one...!!!Stylist T-Shirt Shop

So generous of you to take the time and effort to document every step with words and photos. Thank you and God bless you. Your flowers are gorgeous and you have empowered so many of us to create. Absolutely brilliant. x x

candy,Thank you for sharing I have a new grand daughter that i thought i would never get to see, I have cancer and this past summer my appendices burst i walked around for two weeks didn't have a clue till my body went septic and they gave me a 7% chance of living,thanks to God and a great doctor i made it so i want to do things for my two grand children to remember me by,